EE Systems Validation and Automation Engineer

Job description

About Tacit We are an early-stage, deep tech startup based in San Francisco, developing innovative hardware that rethinks human-computer interaction. We are backed by General Catalyst, Khosla Ventures, and Greylock Partners, with a founding team from Stanford, BrainGate, Oculus, and Tesla. While we can’t reveal too much just yet, our team is tackling cutting-edge engineering challenges to bring revolutionary products to life. ABOUT THE ROLE We are looking for an EE Systems Validation and Automation Engineer to own scalable electrical hardware validation and production test infrastructure from prototype bring-up through manufacturing ramp. The primary focus is board-level electrical characterization, power/signal integrity, system debug, automation, and bench-to-factory correlation. This is a hands-on role for someone who enjoys turning ambiguous hardware behavior into clear measurements, practical debug plans, and decision-ready recommendations. Strong candidates may come from either electrical systems validation or manufacturing test backgrounds, with growth into the other areas. We do not expect expertise in every listed area. WHAT YOU'LL DO - EE Validation, Characterization, and Debug - Develop and execute board-level electrical validation plans and characterization procedures for complex PCBA prototypes, engineering builds, and production-intent hardware. - Characterize electrical performance across voltage rail tolerances, load transients, power efficiency, temperature, configuration, and operating modes. - Perform systematic hardware debug and root-cause analysis for impairments including power supply ripple/noise, signal integrity jitter, cross-talk, ground bounce, thermal throttling, unexpected reset events, and analog/digital noise coupling. - Build power budgets, compliance matrices, and concise summaries that connect measured electrical behavior to product-level requirements. - Manufacturing Test & Production Support - Develop, validate, and optimize electrical test flows for manufacturing, including boundary scan, functional test, calibration, limits, guard-bands, and pass/fail criteria. - Support EVT, DVT, PVT, pilot builds, and manufacturing ramp with data-driven yield analysis and issue resolution. - Partner with contract manufacturers and operations teams to improve test coverage, cycle time, repeatability, and troubleshooting efficiency. - Create factory-facing test documentation, board debug guides, and high-level summaries for recurring hardware issues. - Lab Automation, Instrumentation & Data Analysis - Automate electrical measurements across lab and production test setups using standard board and hardware debugging instrumentation, including digital storage/mixed-signal oscilloscopes (DSO/MSO), high-bandwidth logic analyzers, protocol analyzers (I2C, SPI, PCIe, USB), programmable DC power supplies, electronic loads, digital multimeters (DMMs), function/arbitrary waveform generators, active/differential/current probes, and thermal cameras. - Build test matrices, collect structured datasets, and analyze trends across units, builds, conditions, and configurations. - Use statistical methods to set limits, identify outliers, separate measurement artifacts from real failures, and drive yield improvement. - Correlate bench measurements with automated test results and production data to close the loop between engineering and manufacturing. - Cross-Functional Product Development - Work closely with board layout/hardware design, power electronics, firmware, validation, NPI, operations, and manufacturing partners. - Provide practical feedback on DFM, DFT, test point access, bed-of-nails fixture strategy, and hardware debug visibility. - Communicate complex electrical findings in clear, actionable summaries for both technical and non-specialist audiences. REQUIREMENTS - Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field. - 5+ years of experience in electrical engineering, hardware validation, product test, or manufacturing test engineering; senior-level candidates typically bring deeper ownership across product ramps. - Strong electrical engineering fundamentals, including power distribution networks (PDN), signal integrity (SI), power integrity (PI), timing margins, voltage regulation, high-speed digital buses, and analog front-end behavior. - Hands-on experience with hardware debugging equipment such as high-bandwidth oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, digital multimeters, programmable power supplies, electronic loads, and active/differential probes. - Experience with component- and system-level evaluation of electrical blocks such as buck/boost converters, PMICs, LDOs, microcontrollers, FPGAs, high-speed interfaces (PCIe, USB, Ethernet, MIPI), and low-speed buses (I2C, SPI, UART, CAN). - Experience developing automated tests or lab scripts, preferably in Python or a similar language (e.g., PyVISA, SCPI), for repeatable electrical measurement and data capture. - Ability to define test matrices, pass/fail limits, compliance matrices, and concise validation reports. - Experience debugging complex PCBAs and hardware systems from prototype bring-up through production-intent builds and manufacturing ramp. - Comfortable working cross-functionally in a fast-paced hardware development environment. STRONG CANDIDATES MAY HAVE - Familiarity with signal integrity test methods, bus compliance testing, power rail impedance measurements, or loop-stability analysis. - Experience with high-volume manufacturing test, ICT (In-Circuit Testing), JTAG/boundary scan, test fixture bring-up, yield dashboards, or production data pipelines. - Experience supporting EVT, DVT, PVT, pilot builds, and mass production with contract manufacturers or factory teams. - Experience evaluating power supply transient response, ripple rejection, clock jitter, timing setup/hold margins, and thermal dissipation. - Experience with DFM/DFT reviews for electrical hardware, including test point layout, decoupling strategies, grounding, and fixture repeatability. - Ability to debug across electrical, analog, digital, mixed-signal, firmware, and test software boundaries. SUCCESS IN THIS ROLE LOOKS LIKE - Product electrical performance and power delivery are thoroughly characterized and well understood. - Validation plans provide comprehensive coverage of hardware requirements and technical risks. - Critical electrical and board-level issues are identified early and resolved through data-driven root-cause analysis. - Automated validation infrastructure accelerates learning and improves engineering efficiency. - Measurement results directly influence hardware architecture, component selection, layout decisions, and firmware configuration - Validation data correlates strongly with real-world product performance. - Prototype learnings translate into more robust board designs and faster development cycles. COMPENSATION RANGE $160,000 - $200,000/year BENEFITS - Competitive equity package - Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance - Company size: 30-50 people - Unlimited PTO - Visa sponsorship - 3% 401k matching